Inside Philippine politics & beyond

The trouble with Mar

Share:
LinkedIn0
Pinterest0

Exclusive

By Raïssa Robles

Mar Roxas was far from his usual debonair and dapper self when he was presented at the presidential palace as the new Interior and Local Governments Secretary yesterday. In fact he looked unkempt and tired, in need of sleep and a hair comb.

I was intrigued to see him this way.

Mar

Mar Roxas was not his usual smiling dapper self (upper left photo) on the day he was appointed Interior and Local Governments Secretary – PHOTO collage by Raissa Robles

You see, I started tracking Mar‘s career in 1999 when Asiaweek Magazine asked me to pick out two of the Philippines’ rising political stars. One of those I picked was Mar Roxas. The other was Michael Defensor. Both had zoomed into the limelight as the Spice Boys who later played high-profile roles in the impeachment of then President Joseph Estrada. The third Spice Boy was Migz Zubiri but I did not interview him because I was told to only pick out two highly-promising young politicians.

I chose Mar Roxas who came from the upper class and Michael Defensor who rose from the upper-middle class.

As their careers flourished, I was amused to see that Mar Roxas used the Asiaweek feature I wrote on him as some sort of endorsement. In his biographies online, you will note the sentence that – “In 1999, Roxas was named by the Asiaweek Magazine as “Political Leader of the New Millennium”. This was my profile on him.

Later, Mar Roxas and Michael Defensor chose divergent paths: Mike decided to keep his political wagon hitched to that of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo amid calls for her to resign after the “Hello Garci” scandal broke out in 2005; while Mar broke away from Arroyo.

Mar dazzled but….

When I interviewed Mar for Asiaweek 13 years ago, he dazzled me with his sharp wit, his mile-a-minute answers and his wide knowledge on all sorts of subjects.

I was pleased to learn he even cooked.

Then Asiaweek instructed me to ask Mar to pose for a “quirky” photo to be snapped by noted photographer Edwin Tuyay (now clicking away for Bloomberg and weddings). I told Mar about it and he volunteered to pose for the camera while cooking a meal in his family mansion in Cubao with his chef’s hat. “I’ll cook for you,” he said and named a date.

Relieved, I told Edwin about it. Then Mar phoned and said he wanted a different kind of photo because posing like a chef did not seem “dignified”. OK, I said and asked what he had in mind. We set another day for the photo shoot. Then he phoned again and canceled.

And then I told Edwin just to go ahead and shoot without me anytime because I still had other assignments to do.

This incident made me think that Mar Roxas could not make up his mind.

This perception of Mar Roxas was bolstered years later when a Filipino diplomat told me of that time when Mar Roxas was President Arroyo’s trade secretary. Mar was supposed to meet with his counterpart in a European country. Everything was set for the meeting, then he canceled at the last minute to the consternation of those who had made all the arrangements.

The same kind of vacillation is noticeable in his running for president. He doesn’t seem to want it as much as Jejomar Binay does. He doesn’t seem to have that raw hunger for power.

This attitude of Mar shows in my interview with him for Asiaweek. Sorry. I cannot for the moment find the printed version on the Time-CNN-Asiaweek website. I found my draft and I’m reprinting it below.

Outside his comfort zone

When Mar Roxas assumed the post of DILG yesterday, you could see in his body language that this was a challenge to him and that he was out of his comfort zone. Watch the way he moves to the podium in this GMA News TV video. Watch the way he looks.

What I found fascinating in this tragedy is the way the real Mar Roxas – without the silver spoon and the well-pressed suits – has emerged.

Perhaps it is not public knowledge that Mar Roxas and Jesse Robredo were very close and very good friends.

It is for this reason that they could horse around and come out with a picture like the one below. Very undignified compared to wearing a chef’s hat.

Mar

It is also for this reason that Mar Roxas’ voice broke when he announced that his friend’s body had been found.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv_gpyj1fqM

Mar Roxas was not kidding when he said he was no Jesse Robredo and that Robredo’s slippers were too big to fill. The two shared corporate backgrounds but had different styles. Robredo found a way to engage wary Muslim politicians and even members of the opposition.

It will now be Mar Roxas’ task to similarly engage them. Especially the Muslim political leaders who gave him a political trouncing in 2010 for his stance against the formation of the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity under the leadership of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

UPDATE 9:08AM. September 2, 2012:

Many commenters have said it is a good thing that Mar Roxas seems reluctant to become president. And that he said Robredo’s tsinelas are too big to fill. There is one other Filipino politician who had uttered a similar  line and he literally meant it. That was Agapito “Butz” Aquino who blurted it out after his brother Ninoy was assassinated and people started clamoring for him to step in – Ninoy’s “shoes are too big to fill.”

Butz Aquino tried. He ran for the Senate and won in 1987 and again in 1992. But from 1998 to 2007  he settled on being a  congressman.

So at this point, I really don’t know what Mar Roxas meant when he said Robredo’s tsinelas are “too big to fill.”

If you look at Mar Roxas’ political career, aside from his congressional stint he has avoided political postings in the Executive branch of government and opted for technocrat-type of assignments. This is his first political portfolio.

The Binay camp is of course wary that Mar Roxas will use the DILG post to drum up his presidential ambition. If Mar Roxas is wise, he will continue Jesse Robredo’s straight, impartial and fair way of dealing with local government executives of all political stripes. And strangely, that course of action might even propel Mar Roxas to the presidency.

But does he really want to be president?

He was asked that last Friday and as usual, he gave a noncommittal answer. I don’t know if that is a political strategy on his part to do the opposite of what Vice President Binay did.

My own attitude to presidential elections has always been to keep an open mind and be prepared to be surprised.

Meanwhile, let me share with you the draft of the profile on Mar Roxas  I wrote for Asiaweek in 1999, naming him one of Asia’s rising political stars for this millennium:

Congressman Manuel Roxas is bent on cooking up a new recipe for a political dynasty in case he decides to continue what his grandfather built. He’s not quite decided yet because to him, becoming president of the Philippines like his grandfather Manuel or a senator like his father Gerardo is “not the be-all and end-all of life”.

But meanwhile, he’s busy working his butt off, “trying to leave the place a little bit better” in his third and last term as congressman. At 42, he is the youngest and best educated House majority floor leader in legislative history, having attended Wharton School of Economics-Pennsylvania University and the Harvard-Kennedy School of Government. The neophyte politician was picked for the post because of his bulldog tenacity to make things happen – he was able to get three of his own measures passed.

Often speaking at a rapid clip as ideas tumble out of his super-fast mind, he disclosed that he has adopted to his job the investment banker’s work principle: “For every 10 things I work on, one happens. For every 10 things that happen, three are definite failures, five are mediocre successes and one or two are good successes.”

Most congressmen are strangers beyond their home district but the World Economic Forum took notice of him three years back as among the world’s 100 individuals under 50 who will shape the future. The rich bachelor scion proudly told Asiaweek that while on his own in New York as an investment banker with Allen and Company, he arranged deals that created cable TV’s highly popular Discovery Channel and TriStar Pictures which put together CBS, Columbia Pictures and Time Warner-HBO. The Forum recognized him for making that great big leap from business to politics. But then, Roxas was born and bred a political animal.

It was always understood he too would someday serve his time, even though political life has been traumatic for the Roxas clan – his grandfather died barely two years into the presidency; his father was up for presidential nomination when the strongman Ferdinand Marcos declared military rule, barred all elections and made all politicians redundant; and his younger brother died while in office as congressman, which prodded Roxas to take his place.

Investment banking and 14 years of living on his own, including cooking his own meals, tweaked his mind into viewing old problems in a new way. “Investment banking is let’s make a deal while politics is the art of what’s possible,” he said, noting the similarity. To resolve the problem of allocating scarce education funds, he got a law passed, providing an apolitical formula which tied funding size to the area’s student population. Capiz province, his political bailiwick in central Philippines, has successfully adopted his “Consolidated Planning Process”. Simply put, he cajoled and threatened fellow Capiz congressmen, mayors, village leaders and the governor into pooling all their government money (including his own “pork barrel fund”), and spending these on a collectively agreed set of priorities. “This is now institutionalized and participants themselves have taken ownership of the process.”

In place of the old political habit of patronage, he desires people empowerment.

He sees the latter strengthening with the rise of non-government organizations: “People are acquiring skills on how to organize themselves.”

But the other trend of mass labor migration worries and excites him. It has given rise to single parent households, making one-third of Filipino families dysfunctional. “The next generation of kids would not have enjoyed that simmer, that slow cook for the flavors to seep in,” causing their psychological development and values to be “half-baked”, he said. At the same time, “you have five million people who have seen other countries doing things. It rises the bar of expectation.”

He expressed optimism that politicians, being market animals, would respond to such changing market demands. Which is why he believes he has a political future should he wish to pursue it. “I’m a believer in the market. The market will recognize a good product when it sees one.”

Comments

  1. Mar Roxas is ripe for the presidency considering his experience, education and almost clean slate whe it comes to corruption and anomalies! Most of all he abhors being called a TRAPO and a staunch opponent of “patronage politics”. He is capable of reforming the present state of governance!

  2. ON MAR ROXAS – A BRIEF PERSONAL ANECDOTE
    By Fritz Gaston – Owner, Fritz Beverage, Former PBA Player,

    “I first met Mar in day one of first year college in Ateneo.
    Mar was one of the student managers of my team mates from the Ateneo juniors team. From that first day, there were many surprising revelations about the future Senator, his true character of fairness and fondness with everyone, whether rich or poor.

    Being classmates, having a mutual fondness for basketball, as well as coming from the same region (we’re both Ilonggos), we immediately became friends. What made it easier to be friends with Mar was his simple,friendly and unassuming ways. He was one of the boys, in spite of coming from the “royal blood” Roxas-Araneta lineage. There was no gap between him being wealthy and me being ordinary.

    One day he dropped by my house at around lunchtime and asked me if I wanted to watch a movie. I naturally invited him to lunch with trepidation because the food on the table consisted of very ordinary “gulay and isda”. His simplicity and demeanor changed my uneasiness to honor, for having him as guest and eat the very ordinary food with gusto.

    After lunch, I assumed we would be riding his chauffer-driven huge car (Lincoln Continental I think it was) to Quezon theatre (formerly located in what is now the Gateway). Again my second surprise was that we were going to walk (from my home in West Point St.). I did not expect him to be walking with ordinary commuters in Cubao.

    When we got to the theater, he paid for his ticket and I paid for mine. This gesture meant two very important traits; 1) Mar was not spoiled and abusive, to get us in free (since his family owned all of Cubao); and 2) He was not going to buy one’s loyalty and friendship, by paying for my ticket, or act patronizingly. I was a co-equal regardless of our differences in wealth.

    The third most revealing character of Mar was when we were enjoying the movie. While seated in the cinema house, our legs were extended so that it hit the back seats in front of us (the place was half-empty). A person who was 5 seats away (pretty far from us), moved close to where we were, and pushed Mar’s feet out, saying we were disturbing him. Immediately I said to myself, this is the end for this guy. Mar was going to have him kicked out of the theater by the guards.

    Mar’s subsequent actions however really caught me by surprise. He castigated the much older (bullying) man saying loudly, “Why don’t you mind your own business, we’re not disturbing you and like you, we are also paying customers.” This shows Mar’s fairness by reasoning out (giving the person a chance to redress his stupid action) as well as his inherent toughness as an individual, by not calling on the guards nor even asking me to gang up on the guy.

    There are many more anecdotes I’d like to share… but what is striking is that then and now, Mar is still the same guy with the same traits and character.”

  3. Mar is only human with weaknesses like anyone else. Regardless, he is the only qualified candidate without the taint of corruption. Not even Grace Poe, who only arrived in the Philippines in 2004, lacking in qualifications including citizenship, could match Mar Roxas’ resume. Moreover, Grace Poe’s major financial backers Danding Cojuangco and Erap and from there we can see where the country is headed if she assumes the Presidency.

  4. Dont want to dissent but I don’t think it is wrong ” not to be hungry for power” .
    If at all that makes him oh so different from the kapit tukos of Philippine politics.
    It was common knowledge among Capiznons he has always been a reluctant politico stepping in only when his brother Dinggoy passed away, to carry on the political heritage of the Roxas family. He has always been content to hide behind the shadow of his brother.
    But he sure delivers despite his reluctance. He stepped up to the role when he needs to.
    He is no trapo and God knows how he hated that denigrating label.
    He has his flaws like everybody else but I thank heavens that he has been untouched by the searing need to corrupt and be corrupted.

  5. I wonder why in all write-ups, including Rissa’s no mention has been made of Judy Roxas the mother of Mar who from people associated with the family in the Cubao mansion has a strong ambition for Mar to become the president like his grandfather, ergo would also boost the refutation of the Araneta’s. The recent trip to the Visayas of Judy Araneta Roxas seems to confirm that she is the most interested person for Mar to become the president than Mar himself. Notice the statement in the coverage of that Visayan sojourn that although Mar has not been anointed as the 2016 LP candidate, Judy Araneta Roxas was already campaigning for her son among the sugar cane hacenderos, and Mar is nowhere to be quoted or mentioned.

  6. Just a thought: If I was stepping into the shoes of a man with a penchant for fighting injustice who just died in a mysterious plane crash, I might look a bit preoccupied with the import of what I was getting myself into. And those thoughts certainly would be long ones, and they might distract me, such that I end up looking disheveled. And, if my mother was having the same thoughts, I bet she would be going out of her mind with concern and worry – and her worry would not be about my appearance.

  7. AKO RIN PWEEE. x 100 , Remember Tong Suarez, sya po ang umamin ng gastos sa tate ng sila ng kanyang amo at mga kasabwat ng bills sa resto, Bakit di na lang muna manahimik, talagang mga hayopak , let corona suffer and to give justice to all Filipinos na pinahirapan nya, so others may come into their senses, that the government of P’noy mean business.

    GOODBYE LOLONG, di ba sabi ko noon, ang pagkahuli ni Lolong, the LARGEST CROC’ in the world, it was a SIGN, a sign for all corrupt public officials that their days are now numbered, at ang report said there are even more crocs in that marshland, they represent the local government elected officials, BETTER WATCH OUT WE WANT TO SEE THEM ALL INSIDE JAIL, when that things happen,,, we all say AMEN; AMEN

  8. Lets us give Sec. Mar a chance to prove again that his critics are wrong …again. In doing so, lets help him and the present admin. to do their job by suggesting ideas or projects for better implementation of good governance. Reporting unscrupulous individuals or ” scalawags in uniform ” to his office or to other gov’t line agencies. He is an honest and workaholic person. His DOTC new PPP projects for bidding like airport, roads, bridges and port projects all over the country are very laudable and transparent in newspapers, he didn’t even include his name and picture just like other trapos. Media people esp. TV should have a change in mind set that they should also have a good news segment not the usual sensationalism and tabloid reporting.
    Also, I chance upon VP Binays convoy few months ago, along SLEX that their security escorts really use their might and bravado in passing lanes and under the MKT -Buendia flyover where their MAPSA allowed them to counterflow and disregard traffic lights. Let us not also forget about Mayor Junjun Binay tirade against late Sec. Robredo regarding the informal settlers in MKT ? Where the good Secretary didn’t admonish him for not following his orders for a stay in the demolition. Are these the the type of leader we want to elect come 2013 and 2016 ? You be the Judge !

    • kaya siguro di masaya si Mar sa paglipat sa DILG e alam niya ang malaking problema doon sa DILG,eto na lumalabas na ang isa sa problema si Puno at ang kapulisan .tulungan na lang natin si Mar kung may magagawa tayo, ito siguro ay isang paraan para matapos ng ang problema sa mga ibang pulis at sana di masayang ang mga pinaghirapan ni Robredo .let us pray for Mar for better Philippines.

      • Speaking about spirituality, NO AMOUNT OF PRAYERS CAN SAVE SEC ROBLEDO. HE IS ALREADY SAVED BY HIS PAST ACTIONS AND DEEDS. Praying for a dead man are all plain hypocrisy, what we have to pray is for a man alive that GOD will guide him and give him more strength to fight for evil people that will always be with him tempting to commit mistakes and sins against God and the people. If we are all really for a change and to a much improved governance, let us all centered our prayers to the man given the chance to duplicate if not more that what the good secretary have done.LET’S PRAY FOR MAR ROXAS. May the trust and confidence given to him will not go into waste. Should Mar succeed, Robledo will be the happiest soul in heaven, he did not die in vain. GO on MAR, we will pray for your success.

    • I AGREE WITH YOU FRIEND, LET’S PRAY FOR MAR THAT HE WILL BE GUIDED AND DO WHAT IS EXPECTED FROM HIM, LET’S PRAY THAT GOD WILL GIVE HIM EXTRA STRENGTH TO FIGHT EVIL PEOPLE THAT WILL ALWAYS TEMPT HIM , IF MAR SUCCEED I AM SURE SEC ROBLEDO WILL BE THE HAPPIEST SOUL IN HEAVEN. LET US NOT FOLLOW THOSE HYPOCRITES, PRAYING FOR A DEAD MAN , NO AMOUNT OF PRAYERS CAN SAVE THE SOUL , HE WILL BE JUDGED ACCORDING TO HIS PAST ACTIONS AND DEEDS WHEN HE WAS ALIVE. LET’S PRAY FOR MAR. AMEN

  9. What can we expect from a product of WANBUL UNIVERSITY. It’s all up , no flowers, before the fifth, escalera, no joker, todo plases, high alai. hahahhahaha, kayo naman, ganun lang talaga ang mga escalera brothers, kahit bulakbol, alwyas perfect naman ang exams, ung exams na 1-100, ang score ay 102, (pati name may check ) hahahahahha,, joke,joke joke???

  10. I should stop writing here, I now sound (not CPMer’s fault but mine) like Madame Auring. Days before, I retorted to a piece here about the pummelings expected to slap the wrists of CJ SERENO:

    Parang ganito ang nangyari, HULA ko lang. basehan mga nabasa sa dyaryo online. parang marami ang naihi sa salawal o panty. Alam seguro ni Pnoy at Sereno sila. Hindi naman si Sereno talaga ang talagang nonombrahan. Kasi Wala naman sa usapan yata. Itong mga naihi sa salwal, minaobra nila ng husto si PNoy, parang ginipit, para hindi masunod ang gusto ni Pnoy na maaring maglagay sa kanila sa agam-agam. Sino-sino ba mga yan sa JBC, IBP at Supreme Court, Congreso at malalaking Law Offices?

    Parang pinakipot nila ang dadaanan ni PNoy sa pagpwepwera sa gusto ni PNoy. Gusto nilang piliin pamalo ni PNoy ay yung MARTILYO lang, Nalingat sila. Meron silang naisama na MASO pala. Kaya nakangiti pa, dinampot agad ni PNoy yung maso at ninombrahan.
    Mantak mo, 18 years maso ang ipupukpuk sa bungo nila. Laking kamalasan “Diyos lamang ang nakakaalam.”

    Kaya yung maso hindi makagsabi na napili siya gawa ng mga demonyo. Parang kasing nanalo si PNoy gawa ng Diyos. To Christians, it is a sin to invoke the name of God for shady, malevolent things but it is Thanks and Praise the Lord to utter His name for His apparent goodness and blessings. Some people who writes arguments spread out their ignorance of the difference. So why the broken record reposting?

    There’s the Rub
    Heaven and earth
    By Conrado de Quiros
    Philippine Daily Inquirer 1:03 am | Thursday, September 6th, 2012

    Leave God out of it.

    http://opinion.inquirer.net/36146/heaven-and-earth

    I cringed when I heard newly appointed Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno speak of owing her mandate to heaven. Her exact words were: “Gratitude has to be given to God… the promotion came from him alone.”

    Her sense of course, as she amplified in her impromptu remarks before the Supreme Court community, was that she did not lobby for her position, she got it as a matter of course. The choice of her as chief justice was not the product of politics, it was the product of merit. But if that was her meaning, then she should have put it more directly and plainly. Or at least in ways that do not carry extra baggage or invite unnecessary flak.

    ——————
    Sa kabilang banda, sino ba ang nagpalaki, humubog at nag panday sa murang utak ni CJ Sereno ng higit pa sa magulang niya tungkol sa Diyos at pagiging Kristiyano? Ang sabi nga noong top hit of the 60s: Ang lahat ng ito ay Sapagkat Kami ay ____ lamang.”

    • Isipin lang, ISIPIN LANG, sa tingin ng nakararami, si CJ Sereno na bumigkas ng salitang Diyos ay hindi PA isang binhi o yamayabong na halaman ng kasamaan na tulad ng kung kanino siya inihahambing.

  11. This my original #Sinotto. Marunong bang magtagalog si John, patay na nga!

    Huwag tanungin ang magagawa ng gobyerno sa iyo, itanong kung ano ang magagawa mo sa gobyerno

    He he he!

    • Mr. J. Lin this is positively judgmental (hopefully): MATINIK (matino at mahusay) ang magkapatid na Juan at Obet (John and Bobby). Ang tusok ng tinik nila Hindi kayang tiisin ng mga Kanong may sungay at buntot kaya halos magkasunod TINEPOK silang dalawa.

      NADINIG ko sa Londres, sabi naman ng mga taong pinangalingan ng mga unang Kano, matapos itumba si Bobby sa isang kusina: “Terrible country, from the start they kill their presidents over there.”

      • Ang layo naman ng sinabi ko. Di matanaw. Pero sa kabila ng bundok ng batuhan, Say ko lang: Hindi matinik dahil mahusay lang komopya ng sinulat ng matinik na Kano ang mga alipores ni Sinosotto.

  12. The thing is, it doesn’t make sense! I was trying to connect the Kennedy quote to what he’s talking about and I didn’t see the point.

    • What can we expect from our two historic examples from honorable men kuno, of the Supreme Court and the Senate. Pumili ng magandang damit, dinampot, isinuot, kanila daw. BALIGTAD pa pakasuot. Daming tao sumakit ang tiyan, nahulog sa bankito. Sa katatawa.

  14. Tito “Bugiardo” Sotto also said in his speech that contraceptives are not “essential medicines”. He said National Drug Formulary, not Congress, which should determine what are essential medicines.

    All medicines approved by FDA are essential because they target specific ailment, condition, deficiency or prevention or are just plain supplements. Vitamins, if noticed in the bottles are labelled “essential” not because they treat illness but are supplements necessary for the body. Chemotherapeutic drugs are essential medicines to treat cancer while contraceptives are essential drugs specific for preventive conception just like vaccines are also for prevention.

    When listed in National Drug Formula they are already classified as essential drugs. Congress will be affirming for clarification to laymen what is already scientifically understood classification of drug formularies.

    Sen Pia Cayetano was responsible in suggesting the clarificatory language ” contraceptives are essential medicines”. She would be dead wrong if she rephrased to “contraceptives are essential medicines to avoid abortion”.

    Sotto is not only skirting plagiarism by translating other people’s ideas to Tagalog and claiming his own but he is also distorting standard drug classifications thru semanticism, just to satisfy his self-esteem.

    His AntiRH bill message is lost because of his stubborn egocentric mentality.

    Bishop Arguelles was overheard yesterday moaning, “please somebody send Tito on vacation to his Las Vegas house till after Pacquiao next bout”
    He he he!

  15. off topic po..

    Di na uso ang mag plagiarize kay Sotto…copy and translate to Filipino nalang hahahaha!! Mamamatay ako sa tawa…….. nako po senator… ano ba yan? Sorry at pareho din po iyon.. gawin mo mang bisaya plagiarize din po iyon!!

    http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/09/05/12/sottos-last-speech-copied-kennedy

    Kung totoo ito.. grabe ka na pogi. hahahaha………..

    pla·gia·rize/ˈplājəˌrīz/ Verb:
    1.Take (the work or an idea of someone else) and pass it off as one’s own.
    2.Copy from (someone) in such a way.